Choices
by Hanyou Hitokiri
Summary: A late night visitor to the Fourth searches out the Vice Captain for healing, and gets a brief conversation about the frost on his arm and the choice that he made.


Bleach is owned my Tite Kubo, not me.

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Isane had this reoccurring nightmare involving stir fried vegetables and rice. In a way she could say it was actually more amusing than anything, but still had a hard time falling back asleep afterwards, if at all. Maybe it was the recent events that had torn Seireitei asunder with the rampant ryoka and dangerous squabbles between shinigami that worried her the most. While proudly vice captain of the Fourth Division, she didn't exactly anticipate injuries to keep busy. Isane would rather not have to save a life, but would do so without question. It wasn't only a job, but, to her, a calling. She wasn't strong enough for a reason, but more powerful than most thought because of the lives placed in her Division's hands day in and day out. It wasn't her choice to lack real fighting capabilities and keep behind the lines of fighting, but it was her decision to win battles on a different, sometimes more life-threatening front.

The halls were unlit save for a candle every ten paces or so for the night watch. A pair of shinigami greeted softly as Isane walked by. She slipped past the room where Madarame Ikkaku rested fitfully, snoring, scowling even in sleep.

It seemed Captain Unohana had finally gone to get some rest herself since Isane didn't see her out on the veranda overlooking the forest by the far-off Thirteenth Division.

She was slightly transfixed, leaning against the corner of the wall, so when the shinigami called to her, Isane jumped.

"I'm sorry, Kotetsu-fukutaichou," she apologized. "It's just, there's someone here to see you. He won't see anyone else."

Isane followed to a smaller hospice room, one used for splinting broken bones or wrapping shallow wounds. "Kira-san?"

The blond slowly looked up, having his right arm gripped tightly by his left hand, and stood, bowing rather curtly. "I'm sorry if I woke you, but I think it might be frostbitten." He indicated the favored arm. It did have a slight blue tint, but nothing truly serious. It probably was just a mode of discomfort.

"Oh, well, please sit," Isane said, dismissing the shinigami to her nightly watch. Kira sat on the edge of a table, removing his hand while Isane quickly prepared the kidou.

"I would have done it myself," he barely winced as the flood of warmth prickled across his numb nerves, "but it's a little difficult healing yourself."

Isane nodded, moving from his forearm down to his elbow, shifting the spiritual pressure in the air into a tangible sensation of heat while drawing her own reserves for the healing part. "Can you move your fingers?"

He tried, but only twitched his forefinger. Isane placed one hand on his wrist, feeling most of the actual damage from the cold there. "What happened?"

Kira was quiet, staring blandly at the floor. With that streak of hair over his eye, she couldn't see his expression, but it didn't appear too good. "It was a misunderstanding, I guess," he muttered.

"The only way you could've gotten this much damage from ice during this season is by Hitsugaya-taichou," Isane observed, now clasping his cold fingers between her hands. "I thought he was just upset that Hinamori-san had gotten out. Looks like you escaped also."

"Ichimaru-taichou got me out."

Isane felt his shiver, but not from the chill now almost gone from his skin.

"So that was Ichimaru-taichou's reiatsu," she nodded. "I bet that was a little scary, getting caught in the crossfire of those two."

"Unnerving yes," he sighed. "But like I said, a misunderstanding." He didn't seem too convinced of that, but Isane didn't question it. She retracted the kidou, probing up and down his arm, asking him to flex and move the appendage about.

"All done," she announced. Kira got to his feet, rolling his wet sleeve in place and thanked her. "Just try to stay out of the way next time, if there is a next time." She didn't hope so. First vice captains and now captains were fighting each other?

Kira didn't smile with her. Instead his eyes seemed to darken in a kind of defeat that Isane recalled seeing during his days in the Fourth many years ago. Only this time it seemed deeper, more like a plague than a somewhat dejected young man who had suddenly fallen into what was considered the lowest division in Seireitei.

"I'll do as my captain orders," he said with surprising resolution despite his expression.

"Even if it causes you trouble?" Isane glanced at his fresh arm, and he grasped it again like he could still feel the ice.

"Trouble or no, he…he's still my captain. I made up my mind about that a long time ago, Kotetsu-san. It's a little late to change."

Isane walked with him to the gates, opening them for him, and watching as Kira disappeared into the darkness towards his Division. If there was one thing she could understand it was his willingness to follow his captain no matter what. Loyalty like that she gave her own captain full-heartedly. But Unohana was not Ichimaru. Still, if nothing else, Isane could respect Kira's choice since she'd made plenty of her own that left her seemingly disadvantaged. It at least made both of them strong in their weakness.

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Ah…I don't know. It's a possible pairing I've been musing over for a couple days. It just kind of popped into my head…my strange, probably deranged head…


End file.
